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Isla Vista Shooting Victim's Father Calls for Change

For UCSB students, a return to normalcy remains a distant prospect after last Friday's Isla Vista shootings. One victim's father told NBC News he feels empathy for the gunman's father and would like to meet him. Patrick Healy reports from Isla Vista for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on Monday, May 26, 2014. (Published Monday, May 26, 2014)

Isla Vista is not ready to try to resume life as normal.

The Memorial Day holiday saw UC Santa Barbara students out as usual on bikes, on skateboards, on foot in the community adjacent to campus.

But no one traveled very far without passing by another memorial for the victims Friday night of what the violent rampage that left seven dead, including Elliot Rodger, the community college student identified by authorities as the perpetrator.

UCSB Campus Deals With Grief, Shock After Rampage

As the reality of Friday night's deadly rampage settles in among members of the UC Santa Barbara community, students shared their reflections after the tragedy. Patrick Healy reports from Isla Vista for the NBC4 News at 5 p.m. on Monday, May 26, 2014.

(Published Monday, May 26, 2014)

On so many faces, the pain cannot be hidden.

"It's difficult, but it's really beautiful to see people coming together like this," said Lauren Koch, a graduate student in pschology.

She spoke as she stood at the sidewalk memorial that has grown on Pardall Road. Two blocks west of the campus entrance is the IV Deli, where student Christopher Martinez was shot to death.

Isla Vista Tragedy Memorials, Vigils

"I want something to change and I want my son's death to mean something," his father, Richard Martinez, said Monday in an interview with NBC News.

Martinez on Saturday decried the access to guns in our society. Since then, additional issues have come to the fore, including revelations about Rodger's mental health and angry screeds and threats he had posted on YouTube, and also in an email he sent out shortly before the killing
began in Roger's apartment.

Remembering Isla Vista Victims

"When these things happen, there's a general feeling in the country that these things are hopeless," Martinez said. "You know what? I don't care if it's hopeless. I don't accept that, regardless of whether it is subjectively hopeless, I'm not going to approach it that way."

At UC Santa Barbara, the resumption of classes the day after the Memorial Day holiday has been postponed until Wednesday.

Isla Vista Rampage

Chancellor Henry Yang declared Tuesday "A Day of Mourning and Reflection," with students and faculty urged to come to campus and gather in Harder Stadium for a memorial at 4 p.m.

Martinez is among those who will speak.

"My intention is," Martinez began haltingly and with tears welling in his eyes, "to tell those young people who are alive...that they should try to do the things that my son won't ever have a chance to do."